Late last week, Valve made its mainstay esports title, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, free-to-play and released a new battle royale game mode called Danger Zone. The one and only map for this new mode is fairly dense with content, including a hidden message some fans have interpreted as a hint for Portal 3.
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On the eastern side of the Blacksite map, there are four numbered rooms, with the third one being all boarded up. You can, however, get into this room via one of the others and inside, you’ll find a bunch of computers and a weird audio message. You can have a listen to it for yourself below.
Strange, no? A Reddit user named GetSomeGyros cracked the code which turned out to be the opening line of the well-known song from Portal’s credits, Still Alive.
“This was a triumph. I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS,” the decoded message says.
Why would Valve put this message into the third room of a set which is also boarded up? It seems like a lot of effort just for a neat little easter egg. Is it indeed a tease at Portal 3? If it is, it wouldn’t be the first time the company has hidden hints to a new release in another one of its games. Clues to Portal 2 were hidden within radios found in the first Portal title.
But realistically, no one knows Valve’s intentions for sure, so we’ll have to wait and see whether this ends up being anything substantial. I’d wager this isn’t the first easter egg/hint lying around the map, either. In Valve’s own words, “choose your entry point, explore Blacksite, and uncover its secrets”.
A thread of other weird logos and landmarks featured in the map can be found here if you’d like to join in on the speculation. It looks like Valve might be taking a leaf out of Fortnite’s book.
